CLONING OF A CELLULASE GENE FROM THE RUMEN ANAEROBE FIBROBACTER-SUCCINOGENES SD35 AND PARTIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE GENE-PRODUCT

A gene encoding an enzyme which degrades cellulose (end-1) was isolate d from a library of Fibrobacter succinogenes SD35 DNA fragments and ex pressed in pUC18. The product of end-1 showed significant activity aga inst carboxymethylcellulose but relatively minor activity against lich enan, xylan and avicel. The nucleotide sequence indicated a product of 388 amino acids with a molecular mass of 50.2 kDa. This was in agreem ent with the molecular size estimated by gel electrophoresis. No signi ficant DNA sequence similarity was identified with any published endog lucanase.